Shoe sewing machine



R. M. BAUMGARTNER E I'AL 2,392,304

SHOE SEWING MACHINE Jan. 8, 1946.

Filed Nov. 24, 1943 Invent tors pobertllfiaumgartmr John K. Smith v By fhe/rAz'zvrne I Patented Jan. 8, 1946 snon SEWING MACHINE Robert M. Baumgartner, Havel-hill, and John K. Smith, Lawrence, Mass., assignors to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Flemington, N. J a corporation of New Jersey I Application November 24, 1943, Serial No. 511,526

2 Claims.

The present invention relates to work guiding means for machines constructed to sew the outsole to the welted upper of a lasted shoe and is herein illustrated as embodied in an improvement of the machine disclosed in United States Letters Patent to Carl F. Whitaker, No. 2,296,888, granted September 29, 1942, in which work guiding means are provided for preventing injury to the inseam connecting the welt to the lasted upper of a shoe whilesewing the outsole to the welt on a curved hook needle sewing machine, the work guiding means of th patented machine being adjustable toward and from operative positions during sewing operations.

The work guiding means of the Whitaker patent is so constructed and arranged that when the forepart of the projecting marginal portion along the edge of an outsole is being sewed, the outseam is inserted at a uniform distance from the edge of the outsole and, when th narrower projecting marginal portions of the outsole along the shank are being sewed, the operator is enabled to insert the stitches of the outseam firmly in the material of the outsole at approximately the same distance from the edge on the tread surface of the sole as along th forepart without any possibility of damaging the. threads in'the stitches of the inseam connectin the welt to the upper. To do this, an adjustable outsole edge gage and a separately movable upper engaging crease guide are employed, the crease guide being connected for movement wi-th the edge gage so that when the edge gage is moved out of operative position, the crease guide is rendered active in holding the creasev and adjacent inseam out of the paths of the sewing instruments even when the shoe is tipped to obtain the desired results.

The principal object of the present invention is to simplify and improve th construction of an outsole shoe sewing machine in such a way that a separately movable crease guide is unnecessary, and in which the inseam along the shank portion of a lasted shoe is not subject to possibility of damage while securing the outsole to the welt, regardless of the efforts of the operator to tilt the shoe or to force it inwardly against the work supporting and stitch forming devices of the machine. Another object of the invention is to provide an outsole shoe sewing machine with a simplified and easily constructed work support for preventing damage to the stitches of an inseam in a shoe being sewn without the necessity of providing complicated or intricate parts and mechanisms.

In accordance with these and other objects, one

feature of the invention resides in a shoe outsole sewing machine having stitch forming devices, including a work penetratin instrument and a work support shaped to enter the crease between the welt and upper of th shoe being operated upon, in which a stationary upper gage is mount ed on the work support acting on the upper of the shoe to insure holding the shoe in a position with the inseam out of the path of the work penetrating instrument along the shank of the shoe,

thus preventing the work penetrating instrument from cutting the inseam. The invention also contemplates the use of such a stationary upper gage either by itself or in combination with a sole edge back gage which is adjustable during sewing toward and from operative relation to guide the edge of the outsole while sewing along the forepart of the shoe. In operating on certain types of shoes it is unnecessary to utilize a back gage, the entire outseam being guided with relation to the crease formed between the 'welt and the bulging surface of the upper supported by the last on which the shoe is mounted,

These and other features of the invention consist of novel constructions, combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter described and claimed, the advantages of which will be readily understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a view in right-hand side elevation, partly broken away and in section, of a portion of a. shoe outsole sewing machin having a work support provided with gaging means embodying the features of the present invention, indicat; ing the manner in which the shoe is guidedin the machine while the forepart of the shoe is being sewn;

Fig. 2 is a similar view illustrating-certain of the parts of Fig. 1, together with a shoe being operated upon, indicating the guiding action on the shoe while sewing along the shank of the shoe;

Fig. 3 is a similar view of the same machine but without thenovel work guiding means of the present invention and illustrating the manner in which the welt connecting inseam is damaged where no special provision is made in the machine for protecting it; and v I Fig. 4 is a detail front view of a portion of the work support and upper gage. I I

The machine illustrated in the drawing is an outsole shoe sewing machine and is similar, except as hereinafter described, to that of the patent above referred to, being of the type disclosed'in;

United States Letters Patent to Fred Ashworth from the upper during subsequent wear. To 7 avoid this difiiculty, in the machine of the Whitaker patent the work support is provided with a shiftable crease guide connected for actuation with the adjustable edge gage. When the edge gage is moved rearwardly out of operative position insewing along the shank, thercrease guide of the patent is pressedinto the creasesufficiently to hold the shoe in a position with the threads "of the inseam entirely clear of the needle and awl paths, regardless of the extent to which the shoe is tipped.

When sewing the forepart of anoutsole-indicated i at 22 and a lasted upper 24 connected by m'eans of an inseam 26 to a welt 28, the edge gage moved forwardly into the position illustrated Fig. 1 by a cam 30 acting on the rearward "sur face of a pivotally mounted carrier 32 for the edge gage. When sewing about the forepart of ashoe, th b ai tins m r n l po ti of th Ou O 'andwelt mtersectin g the operating paths of the needle and a'wl being or amplefwidth, are .held hyth'e operatorin a substantially level position. When held in this position, the extreme edge of the "outsole 22, as well as that of the welt 28, assurne a substantially vertical relationship to the work 'engaging'surface of the work support. In this position there is no* practical difiiculty in guiding the direction of the outseam accurately with relation to the edge ofthe outsole.

Along the shank of a shoegth'e projecting marginal portions of the outside and weltare relatiyely. narrow and have bee shaped to fit snugly with the contour of thelasted shoe bottom. In sewing along the shank, therefore, it is the practice for the operator to press thejsh'oe frearwardly with substantial force against the forward face of the usual form of work support, indicated at 33 in Fig, 3, in an effort to raise the narrow project]- ing marginalportions of the outsole andwelt in such a way that the work support may enter the crease between the welt and the last supported upper and space may be provided forthe stitch forming devices. To facilitate entry of the work supportwithin the crease, the shoe is tipped upwardly as far as possible, consistent with accept able sewing practice, and the presser foot, in clamping and projecting marginalportionsof the outsole and welt, acts to bendthe outsole 'up wardly, enablinga still further entry of the work support within the crease of the shoe. Bending the marginal portions of the outsoleand welt tends. to throw their edges out of line and distorts the, parts in such a wayas to give their edges an inclination with respect to the ,work supporting surface of the work support as illus-- trated in Fig 3. With the edge of'the outsole soinclined, it is difilcul't to guide the outseam'accurately with the use or an edge gage so that it is preferable to move the edge gage rearwardly to an inoperative position, the shoe then being guided wholly by the forward upper engaging face ihe s o t. V,

While tipping and forcing the shoe rearwardly inthis ay iseffective to cause the stitches to be inserted alongthe shank at a location wherethey obtain a firm grip in the material of the outsole without running off the edge at the treadsur-' face, there is some danger that the thread or the inseam 26 will be carried into the paths of the needle and awl. Ifthi s occurs, the strands of thread in the inseam will be broken or cut, in, a rfia'imer illustrated inFig. 3, and the shoe weak; fied to such an extent that the welt may separate f Tomevent the inseam along the shank of a shoe from being injured during sewing of the outseain, the machine embodying the present invention, the work support I4 is shaped to enter thecrease and has mounted on it or formed as a part of it a stationary upper gage in the form sented to themachine in th'eusual rnann a eye to hold the crease of the shoe a aynq of.:a downwardly extending apron 34 provided wit .a conca forwa surfec o .a cu vature corresponding substantia Yl ftfQ the jcurvature along the bulge at the irorepart of the l u p r 2 or the r t ebt he c face may be slightlyjless than that of the h ge.- owe'ver, the curvature "o this surface, is, sub.- stantially greater t an thatof the bulge o' the upper along th'e shank. The curvat re upper engaging surface on the work ,su I therefore fits the curvature of the upper h sufficient accuracy, or is parallel to then per along the forepart, so that the shoe may be p' described with the inseam relatively cl Y paths of the needle and awl andth'e titchesin sorted and the outseain g uided a suitable. distance from the edge of the outs ole at the treadfs I 1e withouten'gagingthe upper with the I, face of the work support 'when an edg 'g a" employed, asshown in Fig, 1. Whiel'l the gage is held in rearwardinoperative positio is notemployed, the outs'e'am is guided with re a: tion tothe bulging last supported surfa'cepft e u era t e a t the us al, mann the upper being'parallel to and engaging the co cave surface (Fig 1). When the {shank shoe is reached and the shoe tipped an rearwardly in the usual manner, thecurvature of the bulging shoe upper being less causes it to engage the lower edge oi the apron 34, a shown in F 2. O x la l r-i e he eve .611 is that the curved forward faceoithe apron o the, work support tends to guide the insertion of the outseamat a greater distance from the inseam along'the shank than along theforepait but, in tipping the shoe along thesha and bending the outsole awayrrom theupper, the operator ofisets this greater spaeinfge stanee, actually inserting the scam in the proper relation to the tread surface at least as far from tl ie s e q em l Thus th edle and an m intersect I e. tread s im heat e dis tance from the outeredge ofthe outsole in the proper manner without dangerof cutting the inseam.

tively fiat portion 36; The flat pO flfJOn at s, a

posed tolie substantially tangent to thecuriza} ture of the upperalongthe shank and is, loca f a re l q wa l d of t wo k Su p i sufiicient distance to prevent the inseam, f oin I being forcedinto the paths ofthe needle, nd sail even when the shoe is tipped by the operator.

The degree to which the shoe can be tipped is limited to the extent that the outsole margin may be bent, the force of the presser foot being suificient in the illustrated machine to resist tipping beyond a, position where satisfactory sewing can be accomplished.

By this construction the same or better results are obtained as with the use of the movable crease guide disclosed in the Whitaker patent, without the necessity for complicated or intricate parts, the inseam being guarded automatically along those portions of the shoe where the danger of cutting or injuring threads arises. Thus, there is no necessity for moving any shoe guiding part manually during sewing unless an edge gage is employed, and the problem of cutting the inseam while sewing the outseam of a shoe is eliminated.

The nature and scope of the invention having been indicated, and a particular embodiment having been specifically described, what is claimed is:

1. In a machine for sewing the outsole to the welted upper of a lasted shoe, the marginal projection of the outsole beyond the upper of which may be sewed in relatively fiat condition along the forepart of the shoe and requires bending away from the upper along the shank to provide space for sewing, the combination with stitch forming devices including a work penetrating instrument and a work support shaped to enter the crease between the welt and the upper of the shoe, of a relatively stationary upper gage on the work support for holding the work support further from the inseam connecting the welt and upper along the shank of the shoe than along the forepart to prevent the work penetrating instrument from cutting the inseam along the shank when the operator tilts the shoe to bend the outsole away from the upper.

2. In a machine for sewing the outsole to the welted upper of a lasted shoe, the marginal projection of the outsole beyond the upper of which may be sewed in relatively fiat condition along the forepart of the shoe and requires bending away from the upper along the shank to provide space for sewing, the combination with stitch forming devices including a work penetrating instrument and a work support shaped to enter the crease between the welt and the upper of the shoe, of a relatively stationary upper gage on the work support for holding the work support further from the inseam connecting the welt and upper along the shank of the shoe than along the forepart to prevent the work penetrating instrument from cutting the inseam along the shank when the operator tilts the shoe I to bend the outsole away from theupper, and an adjustable edge gage movable into sole guiding position while sewing along the forepart of the shoe and into an inoperative position while sewing along the shank of the shoe.

ROBERT M. BAUMGARTNER. JOHN K. SMITH. 

